Old pc can't post/won't post

[monkfish]

Allo-ha, friendlies!

This was a custom-built job completed at the end of last year. It had been working absolutely fine, booted up with no probs at all at least three times already today. No internal changes. The only change made was to plug a dvi-vga cable into the extra monitor-out slot on my gfx card. After that, nothing. Ka-putsville. The fans start. The power led comes on, but that's it. No hard-drive light comes on. No beeps. No bios screen. No activity. Nada.

Nothing happens. It doesn't post, doesn't boot.

What i've tried: No brainer - opened the sucker up, checked connections on hd, mobo, etc. Seems fine.

Took the ram chips out. Put one back in on it's own. No improvement. Put the other one back. Still no change. Interestingly, i took BOTH out and tried switching it on with no ram in at all, and got exactly the same outcome as before. Hmm . . .

Also, i've noticed that it powers up as soon as it is switched on at the plug. Before, you had to switch it on using the power button on the front of the case. Not so any more.

I'm not sure whether that's a clue or not.

The case was the cheapest bit of the whole build, but i have no idea whether a glitch with a measly little power button could cause this specific set of symptoms.

Moreover, i don't have a spare psu, mobo, ram chips, cpu, or case to use to conduct further experiments. As i understand it, the problem could lie with any or all of these seperate components, so to start buying replacements without any clear idea beforehand which one is faulty is going to be tantamount to starting a new build from scratch. I figure it'll work out cheaper to take it into to a shop to have a boffin look at it . . . unless anyone here has any better ideas.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

monkfish

[coolraj003]

Have you tried taking out the gfx card and trying to switch it on, may be the card is creating problems. Nothing definite here man, just gonna have to keep shooting in the dark here until we hit the right spot.

Raj

[monkfish]

Have you tried taking out the gfx card and trying to switch it on, may be the card is creating problems. Nothing definite here man, just gonna have to keep shooting in the dark here until we hit the right spot.

Raj

Thanks for the suggestion - tried it today, nothing doing. With the gfx card out, i could take a proper look at the mobo, and there's nothing visibly wrong with it, no blackened or bulging components, no proverbial 'smoking gun' (or smoking integrated chip, in this case). Also, took the heat sink off the cpu. That, too, looks fine (except now i can't get the heat sink back on, lol!)

The plot thickens . . .

monkfish

[ssharish2005]

what i can see here is that you mobo might be with some problem. From what your saying. but not really very sure.

Well what does the hard driver motor starts up when you boot your machine?

Check all other componets from your this machine with the different machine and see if it work and then come to a conclusion wheter it as mobo problem.

ssharish

[monkfish]

what i can see here is that you mobo might be with some problem. From what your saying. but not really very sure.

Well what does the hard driver motor starts up when you boot your machine?

Check all other componets from your this machine with the different machine and see if it work and then come to a conclusion wheter it as mobo problem.

ssharish

I think i'm going to start with the mobo, tbh. When i originally built this system, i realized a little while later that my choice of motherboard had been quite poor. I looked into replacing it then, but decided the time /effort wasn't going to be worth it. Now it looks like i have no choice. So it's not worked out too badly in the end, i suppose

monkfish

[EMCCleveland]

If you think it still may be the case, you can try "dry posting the board."

See if you have a speaker on the board if so you can: remove power, remove memory, remove jumpers for reset switch and front panel power switch, re-attach power, using a small flathead screwdriver touch it to the pins for the front panel switch and hold it 2-5 seconds. Doing this you should simulate the button being pressed and then hear the MB tones for bad / missing memory. No tones = bad MB 7 of 10 times I'd say. The only way to be 100% is to remove everything from the MB (even video and KB / Mouse) and try this but it does give fairly solid indications on the initial test.

[coolraj003]

Yeah but without the heatsink it could ruin it if you keep it on for longer than say about 30 secs. So make sure you make this real quick...Good luck man

Raj

[monkfish]

Allo-ha, friendlies!

This was a custom-built job completed at the end of last year. It had been working absolutely fine, booted up with no probs at all at least three times already today. No internal changes. The only change made was to plug a dvi-vga cable into the extra monitor-out slot on my gfx card. After that, nothing. Ka-putsville. The fans start. The power led comes on, but that's it. No hard-drive light comes on. No beeps. No bios screen. No activity. Nada.

Nothing happens. It doesn't post, doesn't boot.

What i've tried: No brainer - opened the sucker up, checked connections on hd, mobo, etc. Seems fine.

Took the ram chips out. Put one back in on it's own. No improvement. Put the other one back. Still no change. Interestingly, i took BOTH out and tried switching it on with no ram in at all, and got exactly the same outcome as before. Hmm . . .

Also, i've noticed that it powers up as soon as it is switched on at the plug. Before, you had to switch it on using the power button on the front of the case. Not so any more.

I'm not sure whether that's a clue or not.

The case was the cheapest bit of the whole build, but i have no idea whether a glitch with a measly little power button could cause this specific set of symptoms.

Moreover, i don't have a spare psu, mobo, ram chips, cpu, or case to use to conduct further experiments. As i understand it, the problem could lie with any or all of these seperate components, so to start buying replacements without any clear idea beforehand which one is faulty is going to be tantamount to starting a new build from scratch. I figure it'll work out cheaper to take it into to a shop to have a boffin look at it . . . unless anyone here has any better ideas.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

monkfish

UPDATE: OK, so bought a new mobo, installed it saturday morning. Got it working again sunday morning (a gold star to everyone who said it was a motherboard problem).

HOWEVER. I'm now having problems with the new mobo. It's like this. Before, the power would come on when the psu was plugged in, without anyone touching the power button on the front of the case. Faulty mobo. Now, with the new mobo in place, it waits until you press the little button before, perhaps 50% of the time, posting/booting perfectly.

One problem solved. Another presents itself.

Hmmm . . .

I looked at the RAM first of all. Taking the second stick out of DIMM2 seemed to solve the problem. Putting the second stick into DIMM1 also worked. And putting both sticks in DIMMs 3 and 4 also did the trick. The answer was obvious - DIMM2 on my lovely new mobo is dodgy. The solution was equally obvious - only use DIMMs 3 and 4, and everything will be all right. Sorted.

Or so i thought.

Sometimes, when you switch it on, it doesn't boot. De-ja vous all over again. I've found that, if it doesn't boot first time, turning the power off and turning it back on does the trick (or at least has done thus far).

This is what the manufacturer says in their FAQ on their website about this sort of problem: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/FAQ_List.aspx?FAQID=359

My question for you guys: "Does this sound BIOS-y to you?"

I'm using a GA-MA770-DS3, with 2 sticks of 1bg 6400 OCZ ram

Thanx

[EMCCleveland]

I had a similar issue with my personal computer using OCZ 6400 memory, I was able to resolve it 100% by manually setting memory timings in BIOS, I recommend trying that, if the full timings aren't listed you can go on their website and get them.

[monkfish]

I had a similar issue with my personal computer using OCZ 6400 memory, I was able to resolve it 100% by manually setting memory timings in BIOS, I recommend trying that, if the full timings aren't listed you can go on their website and get them.

Thanx for the suggestion - tried it, but still not working.

In fact, since i first installed the new mobo and encountered this problem, it's been steadily been getting worse and worse and worse. To begin with, when it didn't boot the first time, i only had to turn it off and then back on and it would work straight away. Now, you have to turn it off and on at least a dozen times before it will boot.

I tried switching it on when i just got in, and gave up after the umpteemth unsuccesful attempt.

I've had enough. I'm going to try it with a different brand of ram - i've just ordered a couple of sticks of corsair. I just hope they do the trick

monkfish

[monkfish]

Thanx for the suggestion - tried it, but still not working.

In fact, since i first installed the new mobo and encountered this problem, it's been steadily been getting worse and worse and worse. To begin with, when it didn't boot the first time, i only had to turn it off and then back on and it would work straight away. Now, you have to turn it off and on at least a dozen times before it will boot.

I tried switching it on when i just got in, and gave up after the umpteemth unsuccesful attempt.

I've had enough. I'm going to try it with a different brand of ram - i've just ordered a couple of sticks of corsair. I just hope they do the trick

monkfish

Good grief. New ram arrived this morning - 2 sticks of 1Gb DDR2-800 XMS2-6400C4 corsair jobby (with a huge dominator heat sink that won't fit in the first DIMM because of the CPU cooling fan).

Installed it. Still nothing. Can't even get into the BIOS settings to manually configure the new stuff.

And at this point, i'm just about all out of ideas.

The PSU's been tested. By all accounts, it's fine.

That just leaves the CPU, i guess . . .

[EMCCleveland]

Yeah, you might verify that the CPU and MB are compatible. Sometimes it isn't lidted really clearly in documentation and you may need to send a msg to the manufacturer of the MB to be 100% but if not then it should be a CPU issue. These are the exact "ghost in the machine" problems that drive us all crazy trying to find.

[monkfish]

Yeah, you might verify that the CPU and MB are compatible. Sometimes it isn't lidted really clearly in documentation and you may need to send a msg to the manufacturer of the MB to be 100% but if not then it should be a CPU issue. These are the exact "ghost in the machine" problems that drive us all crazy trying to find.

This is interesting - to me, anyway, lol.

Here is the CPU support list that goes with my new motherboard: http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2722

I've been trying to use an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ black edition cpu (65nm, G2) - which, according to this list, is supported only by version 2 of the bios onwards. Could that be the problem?

Ironically, i got just the other day a replacement processor, an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ brisbane, and looking at the cpu support list, like the other, it seems to need version 2 of the bios or better. So if the first one doesn't work without updating the bios, it doesn't seem likely this one will either.

So now i'm wondering if it's going to be possible to flash the bios on a machine that is basically dead :-/

[EMCCleveland]

It is possible, unfortunately in order to flash the BIOS you will need a CPU in the board, of course this only requires any compatible CPU if you can obtain one. Most small shops would be willing to do this for a nominal cost as it can be done on a MB + PSU + Keyboard / mouse + BIOS updater on a bootable flash drive, they only need to use a CPU fom another build in order to do this - this will also give you confirmation that the board is good at the same time.

[monkfish]

Thanks for your input, dude. I appreciate it : )

I have one further question, though (for now, that is). Is my original cpu likely to have been damaged by my efforts to make it work with a BIOS which does not support it?

[EMCCleveland]

No, it is very unlikely that it will have been damaged, mostly due to it not havning ever been powered on for any long periods of time.

[monkfish]

I got a new processor - one that is on the list of supported CPUs from the web-link i posted above.

And it's still not working. I still can't get anywhere near anything so simple as a BIOS screen.

I really, really don't know what to do now. I've gone back to basics and checked once more the obvious things like the power connections, and so forth. They seem fine. I might try going back to the OCZ ram i originally had installed, but i have no confidence whatsoever that that will make the slightest difference. When it first went belly up, i took it to a bloke in a shop for him to have a look at it. He wasn't able to give an accurate diagnosis, much less fix it, but he seemed to think the PSU was fine, and i would like to think that what little he did do would include properly testing the power supply.

Like i say, at this point, having changed motherboard, ram, and processor, having checked connections, having taking it once already to a shop to be looked at, i don't have the faintest idea what might be wrong with it or how to go about fixing it.

[coolraj003]

It might sound a bit odd but you might wanna try to go back to square one and do the barebone start and then procedd from there one component at a time and see if you do get anywhere, It is extremely frustrating to be running around in circles but the least we can do is to try to sort it out for you one way or another.

Raj

[monkfish]

I'm just curious - what exactly counts as a barebones start? I guess what i want to know is whether i should leave my graphics card and/or hard drive connected.

I ask about the gfx card because my mobo does not have onboard graphics, and beeps at me if the gfx card is not properly installed. I suppose it'll be an interesting experiment to take the gfx card out and see if i can get it to beep - which is a heck of a lot more than i can get out of it at the moment.

[coolraj003]

by bare bones i meant that disconnect all the components.
Just have your PSU, mobo, CPu, CpuFan, Ram and probably the gfx card to see if you get anywhere towards the bios. If that works then start connecting one item at a time like the Hard Disk, drives etc....

You might have done it already but since you have bought a couple of new bits so i'd do it just to be sure mate.

Good luck

Raj